Question:
My son, who just turned three, just got asked (nicely) to leave his
preschool. The teacher suggested that we have him screened for ADHD.
I'm all in favor of talking to a professional about his behavior, and my
husband and I had just started wondering about ADHD. But is it really
possible to diagnose it in a three-year-old? And if so, what can be done
for him at such a young age?
Answer:
Three is definitely on the early side to diagnose.
Most wouldn't want to do so that young. I would be rather
PO'd at a teacher giving the advice that yours did. Methinks
it might be a preschool that only wants to "skim the cream,"
as it were. It's perfectly normal for kids to be quite
rowdy at that age.
What's the name of your state's early intervention
program? At our preschool, if your son's behavior seemed
abnormal, he wouldn't have been booted out (at least, not
without going through a long process). One of the first
steps would have been to ask you if it was okay if one
of the Child Find people (our local early intervention
program) could come evaluate your child to see if they
thought his behavior was outside the norm and to advise
on how best to meet his needs in the classroom. If
Child Find found that his needs couldn't adequately
be met in the school, he would be offered free intervention.
So, it might be that you could have your
local early intervention program have a look and see
what they say. Their experts tend to be excellent, and
they can plug you into lots of resources. I wouldn't
expect that anyone would touch an ADHD diagnosis at
this point, though. On the other hand, an evaluation
might get you some useful interventions.
